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iLog-Mundi: SCIENTISTS CREATING SUCCESSFUL SPERM IN THE LABORATORY , www.lavanguardia.es

Researchers City University Yokohama (Japan) have managed to produce sperm in the laboratory, a scientific milestone that reproductive biologists pursued since the beginning of fertility treatments in the 70's. Progress, presented in the scientific journal Nature , opens an avenue of hope for the treatment of infertility male.

For now, the research has been done in mice, so that the production of sperm in the laboratory may not yet be offered to infertile men. But the Yokohama team has proven that they have developed the technique produces functional sperm. And that the babies conceived with these sperm grow normally, without apparent health problems, which are fertile as adults.

"We need to extend our methods to other species, including humans, before applying these findings to treatment of people", said by e-mail Takehiko Ogawa, director of research. Although it is possible the exact technique has yielded sperm in the laboratory mouse is not effective in other species, Ogawa admits, "I am confident that we can do with some modification of the culture medium."

produce sperm is "one of the longest and most complex processes that take place (...) in the body," the researchers write in Nature. This is a process that goes through several stages and that in the human body requires more than a month.

To reproduce in the laboratory, Ogawa and his team removed tiny fragments of testes of mice of less than three days old. "We are enough fragments very small, less than a milligram, "said Ogawa. They used mice as young as the production of sperm precursor cells starts a few days after birth and the researchers wanted to ensure that the process could be performed in the laboratory.

placed the excised tissue culture medium at 34 degrees, the optimum temperature for growth of mouse sperm. Two technical details provided the experiment's success. One is to place the fabric so that one part was in contact with a liquid medium and another part in contact with air, liquid brought him nutrients needed for live cells and allowed to air gas exchange necessary for spermatogenesis.

The second point is that, after an initial failed attempt, a protein called KSR added to the culture medium. This protein was previously employed in stem cell research. In this case allowed us to obtain mature sperm, equipped with a mobile tail, after growing tissue in the laboratory between 27 and 45 days.

The researchers kept the experiment in progress for a few weeks to see if the fabric they used was exhausted having produced its first batch of sperm or cells continued to produce steadily as in a living being. According to the results reported in Nature, "our culture system has been able to induce and maintain spermatogenesis over two months."

At this point, needed to prove that sperm obtained with this technique could be used to fertilize eggs and they were able to father healthy offspring. Entered the decisive phase of the investigation. If babies were not born or not born healthy, we should stop using the technique to treat infertility in humans.

Investigators recovered some of the spermatids and sperm were obtained in the laboratory and they tried to fertilize eggs in vitro 58. Spermatids are the precursors of sperm cells and are also useful for in vitro fertilization because they have the same number of chromosomes, but must be handled differently. The embryos were implanted in females.

According to the results of the experiment, the birth rate was slightly higher in spermatids with sperm. In total, had four males and eight females. One the first day of life was not yet clear If these babies were healthy or whether they would be unhealthy. The researchers allowed them to grow up to reproductive age and during their growth, did not appreciate that they had no relevant health problem. To check if they were fertile, they left that mated with each other. The twelve mice conceived with sperm from laboratory proved to be fertile.

Finally, with the aim of applying this technique to infertile patients in the future, the researchers tested whether they could freeze the tissue in liquid nitrogen and then repeated the experiment successfully. This is a prerequisite for the technique could offer children who are at risk of becoming infertile because of their treatment for cancer. In these cases, it would require removal of testicular tissue before treatment, keep it in liquid nitrogen and thawed when the patient wishes to have children years later.

The experiment showed that even after freezing with liquid nitrogen, testicular tissue retains the ability to produce sperm in the laboratory. These results, the researchers conclude, "will help develop new diagnostic techniques and treatment for male infertility."

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iLog-Mundi: WHAT IS THE SCALE INES?, www.elpais.com

Japan and France have been valued differently than the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant. While Nipponese authorities consider, for now, the severity of 4 on the International Events Scale (INES), ie, "accident consequences at the local" French nuclear agency believes that the level is already 6 (" mportant accident ").

If you ignore the assessment of Japan, the severity of the accident would be below the rank of Three Mile Island in 1979 in the U.S., which caused no fatalities but had economic consequences , environmental issues and markedly reduced public confidence in nuclear power plants. Severity level 4, is also the same as that awarded to Tokaimura accident in 1999-until a few days ago considered the worst nuclear disaster in Japan in the tanks of the plant workers died and 440 were uranium affected by radiation.

The 6 as INES a "major accident", has only been reached twice. In both cases the nuclear plant the former Soviet Union: the first, less known, was the explosion at the nuclear complex Kyshtym (Mayak, Russia) in 1957 and who died hundreds of people and remained hidden for 30 years. The second was the catastrophe of Chernobyl , which in 1986 reached the highest level of the INES scale (the 7).

The INES scale has 7 levels (ranging from "no safety significance" to "major accident") and applied since 1990 to "inform the public quickly and consistently the importance from the point of view safety events associated with radiation sources "in 60 states, according to the website of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Some experts indicated consulted if it is normal to make a first assessment prudent, and took for granted that the severity of the accident was officially raise sometime. The Council radiologist Scientific Research (CSIC) Eduard Rodríguez-Farré noted that news of the recent explosions at the plant would advise increased to 6 alarm level and even qualified Fukushima "a Chernobyl in slow motion" .

SEVERITY LEVEL NUCLEAR AND RADIOLOGICAL EVENTS

0/debaj

-level scale: no safety significance.

-Level 1: Anomaly.

-Level 2: Incident.

-Level 3: Major incident.

-Level 4: Accident at the local consequences.

-Level 5: Accident with far-reaching consequences.

-Level 6: Accident important.

-Level 7: Serious accident.

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iLog-Mundi: Free radicals are passed to the side of good, www.madrimasd.org

Many grandmothers of today recall where olive oil was considered harmful to cholesterol, according to the doctrine of the time. With each new wave of healthy tips, marketing becomes a scientific hypothesis into a dogma of popular faith. Meanwhile, science continues to work, and sometimes grave dogma.

happened when you started demonstrate the benefits of the Mediterranean diet with olive oil as a prima donna, refuting his previous notoriety. And maybe now we are witnessing the end of another myth: that of the antioxidants that promise to give us more life and youth by getting rid of these vicious supervillains called free radicals.

At least that would, if it depended on the Sieg-fried Swiss biologist Hekimi. from the laboratory run by the Montreal McGill University (Canada), this researcher is studying the mechanisms of aging in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a tiny worm that rivals the fruit fly Drosophila as a body pattern to study animal development . Hekimi changed its C.elegans to produce an abnormally large quantity of radicals llibres, which the classical theory because of envejcimiento. The researcher expected to see as the worms aged and died before the others, but was surprised to find that the effect was the opposite: more lived mutant nematodes. By adding vitamna C, the antioxidant more accessible, plus longevity that vanished.

The only possible conclusion to Hekimi, was one that contradicted the classical theory of aging by free radicals. This hpótesis lanazada by U.S. biotech Denham Harman in the 1950, dictates that aging is a consequence the progressive accumulation of free radicals, atoms or molecules with an unpaired electron in its outer shell that makes them very chemically aggressive.

These include highly reactive oxygen species such as peroxides and superoxide ions. These are created during the metabolism of oxygen in respiration, a process used to generate energy in the mitochondria. Antioxidants are also triggered by bombarding the cell with ultraviolet or ionizing radiation, cause oxidative stress and damage the DNA and other cellular components.

To verify their results surprising, Hekimi, mounted another test system. In this case submitted a normal gsanos to paraquat, a herbicide toxic to the European Union, which produces free radicals. The conclusion was the same. The scientist had no choice but to accept the maxim of Sherlock Holmes: when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains however improbable it must be true. And worms Hekimi, the truth was that free radicals, lengthening life. The experiments were published last December in PLoS Biology . Then the scientist joked with the effects of paraquat: do not try this at home.

Graph Chart Of Tay Sachs

iLog-Mundi: UN warns of excessive consumption of analgesics in Industrialized Countries, www.elpais.com

Over 80% of the population whole or in part world lacks access to anlagésicos against moderate to severe pain, suffering unnecessarily, while 90% of these legal substances are consumed by 10% of people, mainly U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Europe. Over the years there has been últmos, excessive consumption of these drugs in indistrializados countries, basically to use as sleeping pills or doctors or scientific purposes, but illegal as doping.

So says the latest annual report World International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), independent UN body with headquarters in Vienna, to consider also on the increase and drug design, whose instructions for its preparation "are easily on the Internet."

on the average consumption of opioids, Spain, with 8,000 DDD statistical purposes (S-DDD, its acronym in English) - engineering units per million population per day, "stood in ninth place in Europe between 2007 and 2009 in a grid of 26 countries led by Germany (19,000 S-DDD), followed by Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and Holland Gigraltar. Globally, was placed in the eleventh position. From 1997 to 1999 Spain was the number 16 (less than 1,000 S-DDD) in a list led Denmark (4,000 S-DDD).

In many countries in Africa, Asia and parts of America is "little or no" access for therapeutic purposes of narcotics and psychotropic substances, "although there are enough raw materials to meet the medical needs of everyone," the report said. The economic cost is not absolute, he adds, can there prepared very cheap, but what a problem is inadequate training of health, lack of regulation in this respect, distribution difficulties and lack of "health policy comprehensive, covering the treatment of pain. "

And while the absence of legal drugs "may deprive patients of their right to their benefits," an oversupply of them, the case of the West, "can lead to abuse and a subsequent drug."

Europe

obstenta world record consumption of benzodiazepines and stimulants in North America. In the period 2005-2009, the estimated global consumption of methylphenidate increased by 30% to 40 tons, most employed in the U.S., where demetilfenidato use for the treatment of attention deficit disorder is still recommended in ads , in clear violation of the Convention of 1971. Its use is higher in the U.S. than in all other countries combined.

PROLIFERATION OF

MEFEDRONA

Another recent threat is the increase in drug design or formula manipulated and agility with which they are made to circumvent controls. Created by slightly modifying the molecular structure of controlled substances causing new ones with similar effects to the former. In Europe are monitored 16 new substances of this type and 51 in Japan.

Last December, the EU adopted a total ban. Mefedrona Until then, it was not pursued in 12 EU countries, including Spain, where its use is still a minority. Only in the UK and Ireland mefedrona consumption is directly linked to the death of morethan 35 people.

The mefedrona are available online and retail outlets at retail, as so-called smart shops, and is sometimes billed as bath salt, plant food or chemicals for research to elude detection and avoid prosecution .

regard to cocaine, although the market has contracted in North America (about 40% of the world) continues to rise in Europe, the report said. Cocaine abuse is spreading from western Europe to other parts the continent. In some countries, cocaine may be replacing as amphetamine and ecstasy drug of abuse.

Western Europe is the largest heroin market in the world, and about 60% of consumption in the region corresponds to four countries: United Kingdom, Italy, France and Germany. In the old continent is recorded almost half of the consumption of heroin around the world, while cannabis appears to have stabilized and in some countries have decreased.

Cannabis is the drug most widely produced, sold and consumed. In Europe, increased illicit cultivation of cannabis. In the English case, 95% cannabis resin from Morocco.